In a radio message delivery system, e.g., a selective call radio communication system, received signal quality varies depending on characteristics of the radio transmission channel. The received signal quality depends on many factors including distance from transmitter to receiver, fading, multipath, interference, etc. The channel conditions are different for receiver units located at different points in space. Some receiver units may receive perfect messages while other users may receive messages which are too corrupted by the transmission channel to be usable.
The messages may consist of voice, text, numeric data, graphical data, or other types of message. Message delivery quality may be unsatisfactory because a receiver unit is in a weak signal area or is completely out of range. Interference from other transmitters can also cause message delivery quality to be unsatisfactory. In addition, the receiver unit can be turned off, thus causing all messages to be missed.
Conventional paging systems utilize a communication strategy designed to deliver a usable quality signal, nearly all the time, to nearly all points in the intended coverage area. Unfortunately, such a system design is incompatible with achieving maximum throughput efficiency and economy of system design.
Thus, what is needed is method and apparatus for adaptively selecting a communication strategy in a selective call radio communication system. Preferably, the communication strategy is selected in accordance with achieving maximum throughput efficiency and economy of system design.